AMY NATHAN's Web SiteWELCOME!

"Almost everything a parent needs to know about the challenges and rewards of children’s music lessons...A concise, positive, practical and highly recommended source of advice and solace for anyone guiding a young musician’s life."
— KIRKUS Reviews

"Nathan drew on the experiences of 265 parents and educators for this book of advice, emotional support, and important reminders of why the pursuit of music is worth the sacrifice."
—Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer/​ Philly.com

"Where can the dedicated, but slightly frantic, music parent turn for advice? Enter Amy Nathan, a writer and music parent who wants to help. Her book includes interviews with parents of well-known musicians and educators. The 12 chapters cover everything from getting started to preparing for a musical future beyond high school. Harried parents will find plenty of insight here."
— STRINGS magazine, July 2015

“. . . any music parent will find stories and advice that will resonate with them in this book. The sidebars and stories from professional musicians were particularly delightful . . . could also be considered essential reading for any music teacher. . . So whether you are a music parent (struggling or otherwise) or an educator who has found oneself counseling a frustrated music parent, this book is worthy of a place on your bookshelf!”
— American Music Teacher Magazine

“I'm thrilled that Amy Nathan has provided such an encyclopedic guide. Now I can refer parents who ask about starting their kids in music to this thoughtful, balanced conversation among so many parents who have been there.”
— Theodore Wiprud, Vice President of Education, New York Philharmonic

“An important read for every family engaged in music studies: a delightful collection of ideas and moving accounts from loving, dedicated parents.”
— Aaron P. Dworkin, President, The Sphinx Organization

Amy Nathan, author of two earlier books on music, is a music mom herself, with two musical sons: composer/trumpeter Eric Nathan (www.EricNathanMusic.com) and his saxophone-playing political scientist brother.

"If you are the parent of a music student, you might want to check out a new book from Amy Nathan called Music Parents Survival Guide. It is full of advice and info to help you navigate the many steps your child will take between first lessons and heading off to college and beyond. The book includes interviews with lots of professional musicians, educational leaders, and admissions experts from top music schools, including Dr. Matthew Ardizzone, Eastman’s Associate Dean of Admissions. Definitely worth a read!"

To contact author:
AmyNbooks@​gmail.com

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THE MUSIC PARENTS' SURVIVAL GUIDE

This book of parent-to-parent advice aims to encourage, support, and bolster the morale of one of music's most important back-up sections: music parents. Within the pages of this new book from Oxford University Press, more than 150 veteran music parents from around the country contribute their experiences, reflections, warnings, and helpful suggestions for how to walk the music-parenting tightrope: how to be supportive but not overbearing, and how to encourage excellence without becoming bogged down in fruitless battles of will.

Among those offering advice are the parents of several top musicians, including the mother of violinist Joshua Bell, the father of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the parents of cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and those of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers.

Telling an anecdote about Joshua Bell and his mother, who are both featured in the book.

A parent-to-parent talk about the book at the DC Youth Orchestra featuring orchestra alumna Toyin Spellman-Diaz (R) and Kenneth Whitley, the orchestra's assistant artistic director. Author Amy Nathan (C) has also been holding parent-to-parent discussions this year at other music programs.

"Help! How much should you push your child to practice? Is the teacher who seemed right last year still the best choice? When should you invest in a good instrument? Parents of young musicians are hungry for answers, and Amy Nathan provides some in The Music Parents' Survival Guide: A Parent-to-Parent Conversation (Oxford University Press). Nathan drew on the experiences of 265 parents and educators for this book of advice, emotional support, and important reminders of why the pursuit of music is worth the sacrifice." - Peter Dobrin / Philly.com / Philadelphia Inquirer

Amy Nathan gave the keynote address at CIM's Preparatory Division graduation in May 2015, at the invitation of Dean Sandra Shapiro (whose is featured in THE MUSIC PARENTS' SURVIVAL GUIDE). Nathan and Dean Shapiro (L) are shown here at a parent-to-parent workshop that weekend in Severance Hall with parents of young musicians in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Almost everything a parent needs to know about the challenges and rewards of children’s music lessons.

Nathan (Round and Round Together, 2012, etc.) offers the flip side of her 2008 book, The Young Musician’s Survival Guide, and looks at parents’ experiences with their children’s music study, including its delights, dilemmas, expenses and intangibles. Inspired by her own experience, but primarily drawing from interviews with other parents, she offers 12 chapters, each carefully labeled so that harried readers can turn directly to the most pertinent information. Every parent who pays for music instruction, ferries children to lessons, provides instruments and listens to his or her kid practicing exercises asks similar questions: Which instrument? Is there life after lessons? Can they make a living at it? Parents of now-famous musicians reveal in interviews that there’s no one right way to begin, or even know to begin, a child’s musical career. Shirley Bell, the mother of world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, discovered her son’s talent when the 2-year-old created his own musical instrument from rubber bands and drawer knobs, but she says that she “never anticipated that it would be a career.” Other parents share effective, sometimes indirect, ways to encourage practicing, in two useful sections. One chapter is devoted to finding a teacher, and offers wise tips: Attend kids’ concerts, and check nearby colleges, local orchestras, and summer programs. The interviewees’ consensus is, unsurprisingly, that it’s all worth it, even if children don’t turn into professional musicians; it gives them a lifelong source of delight and, as parent Theresa Chong affirms, it can forge “a close connection…through our shared passion for music.” There’s also a handy bibliography for further research, a source list and an index.

A concise, positive, practical and highly recommended source of advice and solace for anyone guiding a young musician’s life.

More than 40 professional musicians are featured in THE MUSIC PARENTS’ SURVIVAL GUIDE, sharing stories from their own childhood musical experiences and offering practical and helpful suggestions for parents. Below is a list of who they are — with their websites — so you can learn more about them and also check out their calendars and try to catch some of their upcoming performances.

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Here are the schools and organizations that helped in locating the more than 150 experienced "music parents" who served on the book's advice panel. In several cases, music educators from some of these schools or programs served on the advice panel as well: